Information Technology (IT) convergence that includes characteristics between devices are intimately connected to each other, and new consumption contents that are created have become important to the IT industry. Also, devices have evolved from a device with firmware for single function to devices capable of embedding an Operating System (OS) and using many services for various purposes. For example, these newer devices may often include smart TV and tablet PC functionality.
Because it is possible to perform communication between devices through a variety of communication methods using a device with an OS and a network interface, it may be possible to provide a new service without the addition of physical device. That is, new services may be implemented on these converged devices using mostly software. Thus, it may be possible to provide services for controlling peripheral devices using a mobile device such as a smart phone through a representative function among these convergence functions. For example, a TV remote control function, a home theater control function, a car remote control function, a PC mouse keyboard function, etc. may be performed using a smart phone. Because each remote controller may have a physical input device customized to function with a corresponding device, there may be a disadvantage in which multiple physical remote controllers are required to control their respective devices. In order to solve the disadvantage, the functions of multiple remote controllers may be performed by the mobile device such as a smart phone. The mobile device may store instructions associated with the functions of multiple remote controllers to be used by its user. Herein, the mobile device may be a general term for a variety of devices, having an OS function and a communication network function, such as a mobile phone, a Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), a smart phone, a tablet Personal Computer (PC), and a notebook.
In order to remotely control a controlled peripheral device using a conventional mobile device, the user is often required to connect to an external server, download a suitable control application from the external server, and install the control application in the mobile device. Also, in order to control different controlled peripheral devices using the conventional mobile device, an application for each controlled peripheral device is often required to exist in the conventional mobile device. Accordingly, if the user does not remember where the remote controller is, he or she may spend a lot of time to find the remote controller.
Also, the conventional mobile device may control only a few functions of a controlled peripheral device (e.g., a volume and channel change function of a TV). Accordingly, the conventional mobile device does not correspond to optimized control & interaction corresponding to a smart service application which may be emerging, such as, a service application executed in a device having an OS such as a smart TV and a tablet PC. In other words, because the conventional mobile device like a general TV remote controller unidirectionally transmits a control signal or displays only information about a simple operation state, it may not provide optimized control methods of different applications executed in a device such as a smart TV. For example, in the smart TV, applications such as a game application, an explorer application, a magazine application, a messenger application, and a multimedia application exist. The conventional mobile device such as the general TV remote controller may not control these diverse applications easily and quickly.
Also, in order to control a variety of applications for each controlled peripheral device using the conventional mobile device, because the whole process to a program design, a User Interface (UI) task, and function implementation for each corresponding control application must be developed, a lot of investment cost and time is needed.